Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, will remain in prison after losing a bid Monday to overturn her fraud conviction, with a federal appeals court saying she hadn't proved there were legal missteps during her trial for defrauding investors with false claims of what her blood-testing startup could achieve. The three-judge panel in San Francisco also upheld the fraud conviction of Holmes' former business partner and lover Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani—as well as a lower court's order for the two to pay $452 million in restitution, the AP reports.
A 41-year-old mother of two small children, Holmes was convicted of defrauding investors in 2022 and began serving her 11-year sentence in May 2023 at a federal prison in Texas. Her listed release date at the Federal Bureau of Prisons is currently March 19, 2032. Balwani, 59, was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison in California for his role in the scam and is set to be released in 2033. The pair alleged in their appeal that legal errors were committed during their separate trials when the court allowed some testimony, including that of a former Theranos employee, and improperly prohibited other testimony.
Judge Jacqueline Nguyen rejected the claims, writing in the 54-page ruling that they failed to prove any violations or major errors by the lower court. Holmes now has the option of petitioning for another review of her case with more judges from the same court or trying to petition the Supreme Court directly, though analysts believe she has lost her best chance of overturning the conviction, the Wall Street Journal reports. (Earlier this month, she said being in prison has been "hell and torture.")
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